Dog Daze

Ever heard the expression “Dog Days of Summer”? Well, we’re in ’em, podnuh! I grabbed part of an entry from Wikipedia to explain it to yuh…. /

The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius rose just before or at the same time as sunrise (heliacal rising), which is no longer true, owing to precession of the equinoxes. The Romans sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.

Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time “when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies” according to Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813. /

So, if yer dog is behaving strangely, or maybe if you’re just having some HOT weather, blame the sun, or Sirius, or maybe the Romans. Unfortunately, our little KD doggie had a ‘strangely’ time recently, and I had to handle it all by myself, since darlin’ Kate was at work. I had taken KD to the vet to get an injection (Lyme booster, whatever), and by early evening I could tell that *something* was not right! KD was totally agitated – she’d be on the big armchair for awhile, then jump down and run into the bedroom. She’d come back shortly, jump on the couch for awhile, then back down, run around to the kitchen, then come back. The vet had given us a few pills on a previous visit to be given to KD just before any potentially stressful occurrence, like getting her nails clipped, or in case of rumbling thunder (like many dogs, that really makes her fearful and nervous), so I was on the verge of giving her half a pill to settle her down when I looked down at her and realized SOMETHING was wrong with her face, all puffy and swollen!

Uh oh! I realized then that the ‘quiet’ pill wouldn’t do the trick – this was an allergic reaction. I picked her up to check her out and found red welts all over her chest area. I remembered something about it being ok to give benadryl to dogs, so I did some quick online research and found out the correct dosage for her and gave her some on a slice of cheese.

Anyway, long story short, she was doing much better after an hour – miracle drug, for sure! She had some residual facial swelling next day, but nothing terrible. Whew! I guess you can call me Dr Jim or Nurse Jim or something – I rescued little KD dog. Sure wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to ‘Shorty’.

A quick update on the blackberry saga – they are starting to ripen in reasonable quantities now, and I was out today doing some gathering. Kate was inspired by the ‘berry bounty’ and turned out a couple more pies this afternoon, with instructions for me to take one of them to the neighbors, which I did (she had to go on to work). The neighbors were all smiles when they got her gift, I can tell you!

And, to close, I’m including a photograph I took yesterday evening (I also put this on Facebook, so bear with me if you’ve already seen it). We had a late-day shower, just enough to cool things off, then the sun came back out just before sundown and I happened to look out the door at just the right moment to see the beautiful misty sunset shot. A lucky, lucky shot!! Hope you enjoy it!